Join Me For Vlogmas - New Video Every Day!

Hello! This year, for the first time ever, I'm joining in with vlogmas!! It's an idea that my dear friend Claudia casually dropped when she said "are you doing vlogmas?" in our recent Instagram live. I replied, "er ...? I haven't thought about it", but the idea was planted and a few days later I was recording my first episode!

For those of you who don't know, vlogmas is a series of (usually daily) video vlogs in the run up to Christmas. Some even continue to the end of December, since it's my first year I think I'll stop at the 24th, but I may combine a few days and upload one more between Christmas and New Year, we'll see. It's always good to have a nosey at how other people celebrate Christmas, right?

So far, my episodes seem to have gone down well. Looking at my YouTube anaylitics the view duration is good and I'm gaining far more subscribers than usual. I can also see that I have a high percentage of returning viewers on these episodes, so I'm really happy about that. I'm a realitively young channel and this past year I feel that I'm beginning to find my voice and I can see an improvement in my videos. I have plans for next year, but I'll keep them up my sleeve for now!

If you haven't been watching, click the link to view here. Episodes are around 10 to 15 minutes long, nice little bite size videos for you to dip into!

If you've been with me since the start of the year, you may rememeber that I started saving up £2 coins to buy a yarn Advent calendar. This was a brilliant idea, I counted up the other day and I have £158 in my little felted pouch! Obviously, the claendar had to be paid back in April, but it just goes to show that these coins soon add up and they're not missed from your wallet. I'm going to keep doing it in future because I LOVE my yarn Advent calendar so far!
 
I chose The Hobbit themed calendar from Skein And The Stitch and so far the colourways have been stunning! Each day follows the story of Bilbo's adventure through the book and the colourway corresponds to what he gets up to. We started with fresh greens of the Shire and today's was a very dark grey to symbolise the goblin cave he's currently stuck in.
 
So, the format of my vlogmas is to film a short clip first thing in the morning with me opening the advent calendar, film a few snippets of my day, then film a concluding bit at the end of the day - usually showing off the shawl I'm crocheting (above) with the latest colourway worked in. 
 
If this sounds like your kind of thing, please check it out here, I'm sure you'll enjoy it!

Until next time, happy crocheting,

Marta xx

New Pattern Published In The Journal Of Scottish Yarns!

Hello! I'm really pleased to be able to share one of the secret projects I was working on in June this year - I have a new pattern published in The Journal Of Scottish Yarns!

It's called the Sunset Song Top and it's a vest style sweater which can either be worn alone or used as a layering piece. I took my inspiration from the many beautiful sunsets I watch from my window as I crochet and from the novel Sunset Song by Lewis Grassic Gibbon.

I'm especially happy with the styling on this one and the way the garment suits both men & women and both young & old; it's very adapdable depending on the look you're going for!

I chose a lightweight yarn from J. C. Rennie, their Supersoft 4ply which is 100% wool, in 3 colours to create the look. The garment is crocheted from the bottom up in 2 pieces which are worked flat and then seamed together using mattress stitch. Instructions have been carefully graded for 9 sizes - a big thank you to the tech editor Samira Hill for her help with this.

In the photo above you can see the beginnings of my design journey. When I started the ribbing worked out exactly as planned and then I swatched to see if the stitch idea I had would work well in the J. C. Rennie yarn - looking particularly at the drape and stretch. I was pleased with this so went ahead with stitch and row calculations for the body of the top.

 
All in all, I'm chuffed with how this design worked out. There's opportunity to go as wild as you like with the colours or to go super simple and crochet it all in one colour! Like I said last week - the choice is yours! 
 
You can buy The Journal of Scottish Yarns, issue 4 on their website and in many local yarn shops in Scotland and beyond.

Until next time, happy crocheting,

Marta xx

PS. Be sure to tag me on social media if you make a Sunset Song Top!